Significant Moments

1. "She seemed to remember something and came back to look at [Montag] with wonder and curiosity. 'Are you happy?'" (39). 
Montag meets Clarisse one night and has an enlightening conversation with the girl. He learns that the girl is the complete opposite of everyone else's dull and shallow personalities. Montag learns of the Man in the Moon, and noticed other things that he often overlooks. Just as the girl is about to leave, she asks him the life-changing question of "are you happy?" Montag thinks the question is ridiculous; he is certain that he is happy. Soon after though, he realizes that he has been missing something in his life that none of the cheap entertainment of his age could fill.

2. "The small crystal bottle of sleeping tablets which earlier today had been filled with thirty capsules and which now lay uncapped and empty" (43).
Montag goes home to find that his wife, Mildred, has taken 30 sleeping pills. He phones the emergency hospital, to which operators, instead of medics, use machines to clean out Mildred's system. Through this suicide attempt, Montag ponders back to the question of Clarisse asked him. He wonders why his wife would try to kill herself if she says that she is happy.

3. "The woman's hand twitched on the single matchstick. The fumes of kerosene bloomed up about her. Montag felt the hidden book pound like a heart against his chest" (69).
Montag and his crew receive an alarm about a woman who may be hiding books. Once they get to the house, he discovers that the woman owns a lot of books, and plans to do his duty as a fireman and burn those books. For some reason, Montag had second-thoughts about destroying the books, so he stole one instead. As the other firemen try to detain the woman and burn the books, the woman takes out a matchstick. She sets herself and her books on fire instead of being taken away. This experience alters Montag's life forever. From that moment on, he knows for sure that he is not happy, and from the woman's actions, the answer to his happiness lay somewhere in those books.

4. "I plunk the children in school nine days out of ten. I put up with them when they come home three days a month; it's not bad at all. You heave them into the 'parlor' and turn the switch. It's like washing clothes; stuff laundry in and slam the lid" (125).
The quotation is said by Mrs. Bowles. She has children, but does not take care of them at all. She puts them into school and let junk be poured into their brains from the 'parlor.' Her actions represent the carelessness of the people in the novel. They do not form any meaningful relationships with anyone, including their own children.